Why Google is Not the Answer to Enterprise Search

Google has helped drive major transformation in the search market...but does this mean that they have the answer for enterprise search?  A lot of evidence actually points to the contrary.  A recent article by  J. Bonasia in Investor's Business Daily titled "In This Search Field, Google Far From Tops" does a great job of explaining why despite initial user interest, many are starting to recognize that Google's dominance in web search will not translate into the ability to effectively address enterprise search requirements.

Admittedly, Google has provided some significant innovations to the enterprise market, so let's first look at why many companies have purchased the Google Search Appliance, which is their enterprise offering. To begin with, it makes search easy.  The plug and play nature of their offering is a radical change from most enterprise search solutions that were previously on the market, which required significant set up and integration.  They have also been leveraging their brand recognition around web search and taking advantage of user confidence in "Google" providing the most relevant internet pages that match their web queries.  As Thomas Claburn very well articulated in his InformationWeek article, "almost every computer user knows how to interact with Google's simple search box and its results page...familiarity breed contentment." Kudos to Google for taking advantage of this.

However, as organizations begin deploying the Google Search Appliance and attempting to leverage it for their enterprise search needs, we are now starting to see some of its limitations.  Its advancements in simplicity were largely a result of its limitations in functionality.  And most of the concerns raised 10 months ago in a TechNewsWorld article still hold true today - "Google's PageRank search technology, which determines which items are displayed to users, does not categorize company data as well as it does Web information."  Google will be the first to tell you that they take a lot of different factors into account, not just PageRank.  However, its algorithms continue to be focused on web-oriented content.

The article also claimed that "the product does not offer corporations robust filters so they can fine tune searches."  As Tony Byrne also points out in a more recent TrendWatch Blog, Not Tuning the Google Search Appliance, "one of the drawbacks of Google's search appliance is that it cannot be 'tuned' the way you can with most enterprise search products."

Google claims this to be a "feature" and not a bug.  But that is because they believe that you should leave all the relevancy ranking to them.  However, as most analysts point out, and many customers are starting to find, being able to determine the most relevant web page for internet searches does NOT equate to being able to find the most relevant piece of corporate content.  Companies such as Autonomy, FAST and IBM have actually been much more focused on relevancy algorithms for enterprise content.  And, each company is different.  They not only have different vocabularies and taxonomies, they also have different ways of referencing their enterprise information, and complex systems in place to store and manage that information.  And different business applications may require their own views of what is most relevant.  For example, an e-commerce application may want to take into account product availability and customer preferences and focus on marketing related information, while a customer service application would want to ignore those factors and focus on FAQs and knowledgebase articles.

This is why "true" enterprise search solutions require the ability for companies to "tune" their relevancy algorithms and deliver deeper integration into their enterprise systems.  This is why the Gilbane Group Blog highlights that customer testing still often finds the appliance lacking in "tune-ability" and integration capabilities in its reference to the CMS Watch Enterprise Search Report. (Yes, it also points out the fact that IBM is still struggling to rationalize multiple search technologies and strategies, which I agree with...but this is something IBM is already working on, and something that can more easily be resolved)

The other difference is that just as Google wants to be the place everyone goes to find something on the web, they want their appliance to be the place everyone goes to find something in the enterprise.  While their technology is still far from making this a reality, as are every other vendors' current offerings, even when enterprise search products get there, this shouldn't be how users get to search.  I like Tony Byrne's response to Google's claim that "Search is the human interface into all corporate information." In his Blog entry on Google and the future of information management, he says, "Uh, actually, no.  Search is just how you find stuff; after that, knowledge workers have to actually do something with that content." I would add to this that users can be more effective if information they need is delivered to them in context, and in line, within the business application they are using.  This means that search is not necessarily the end application, but the technology used by applications to find and deliver the information needed by users to complete their business tasks.  Productivity is significanly impacted when users have to leave their application to find the information they need.  In fact, some studies have shown that users often make poorer decisions and sometimes do not even bother finding supporting information when they have to leave the confines of their current application to search for what is needed.

The simplicity that Google's Search Appliance offers does have its place.  It makes it easier for organizations to get started with search, and can provide sufficient search results when focused on basic site search.  Matthew Brown at Forrester correctly positions their offerings in this category in his Quick Take.  And this is a market that has been majorly under served by the enterprise search vendors - a big reason for Google's success so far. Now that they have the attention of the enterprise, we'll just have to wait and see where they go from here.

Comments

[Dejan Nenov]

Marc -

one are that you do not touch on is Enterprise Search Security - I would be very interested in seeing your reflections on that topic as well?

[Justin Thorp]

Google recently put out an update to its search appliance. I would be curious to hear what your thoughts are on it. E-mail me.